Ok, to answer myself: to write a standalone hbase client, it seems to be
enough to
* set up the zookeeper server(s) to ask around:
HConstants.ZOOKEEPER_QUORUM ("hbase.zookeeper.quorum")
* if different from std, set the zk port
"hbase.zookeeper.property.clientPort"
* if different from std, , set the port to the region and master servers
* add hadoop, hbase and zookeeper jars to your project.
* open the ports to the hbase servers and to zk
In my case, the zookeeper port was not open in the firewalls...
Bob
...
